Monthly Archive for May, 2004

I AM YOU! I AM YOUR SHADOW, SNAKE!

Published
by
KIRBYSIM
on 27/5/2004
in Gaming
. 2 Comments

By now, most of you gamers out there would have already heard of the legendary videogame espionage soldier, Mr Solid Snake.

I first got acquainted with him in Metal Gear Solid 2 on the PS2. The initial impressions went right out the window when my heavy jaw fell clumsily on my foot just as a stealth-camourflaged Snake performed the leap of fate onto a Marines tanker. What an ‘impact-ful’ meeting that was - his camouflage device crumbled under the force.

After completing MGS2, I already knew how almighty Solid Snake is with all these crazy war situations. But, as many of you would know, only about a quarter of the game was about the exploits of the legend. Sure, Snake took down an unshaven, pregnant Russian Spetnaz armed with daggers, a USP, grenades, complete with as much ammunition she can have (just as long as Snake doesn’t die) all by himself… with an M9 tranquilizer gun. But none of that experience could have prepared me for the awesomeness that was to be unveiled in Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes.

Hideo Kojima tried to drop my guard by pitting the man-who-took-down-2-metal-gears-in-the-past against an old revolver freak who enjoyed getting shot in the head while taking his time to reload a 6-bullet handgun. The next thing I know, Solid Snake was up against an M1 armoured tank, complete with enemy-tracking systems and a manned machinegun. What did Snake have in his arsenal? Bazookas (according to Advance Wars, Bazooka-armed infantry units, called Mechs, are strong against tanks)? No. Stinger missiles, at least? No. Maybe Colonel Campbell would come through for Snake by dispatching an air bomber into the Alaskan base? Hell no. All Snake had was a couple of chaff and frag grenades. And he wins.

From disfigured, mask-donning psychics who can tell that Solid Snake plays Super Smash Brothers Melee to female snipers with names that are similar to the object of their fetish (hint: these animals howl), you name it, Solid Snake has killed it. A futuristic ninja who can parry streams of bullets, but not simple punches and kicks, with a hi-frequency blade? Checked. A long-lost brother who keeps whining about his father’s favouritism with an elaborate British accent? Been there, killed that. Naturally, the fact that Solid Snake was unbeatable sank in.

However, don’t by too happy, Solid Snake fans, for I have discovered David’s (that’s his real name, for those not in the know) worst enemy! One that he has yet to defeat! Guess who?

… …

No, it’s not Solidus Snake.

… …

No, not Raiden. He can’t even take on a heavily armed Goth poetess without first having to be sent on a tedious fetch quest, for Christ’s sake.

… …

No, Solid Snake already called Meryl a rookie. And besides, according to MGS2, she’s dead.

Okay, enough guessing games. Let me present to you the ultimate kick-ass boss enemy that Solid Snake will NEVER be able to defeat!!

*drumrolls*

Continue reading ‘I AM YOU! I AM YOUR SHADOW, SNAKE!’

Popularity: 9% [?]

Of Gaming And Healthy Living

Published
by
CrashWire
on 20/5/2004
in Gaming
. 0 Comments

Recently, I’ve been doing 12 hour or so gaming marathons. Hardcore? Maybe. Crazy? Yes. And so I stopped my marathons just to deliver a message to everyone. It might seem short, it might seem rather obvious, but you do have to admit that I’m right.

Play Healthy, Live Healthy.

Ensure that you have at least 7 real world hours of sleep everyday. Eat a nice breakfast of real world food. Engage in real world activities.

Gaming may nourish your mind, but it wouldn’t nourish your body. Unless you’re doing 12 hours of non-stop Dance Dance Revolution on a dancepad. But that’s beyond crazy.

And of course, have fun. Gaming is not supposed to give you undue stress. It’s supposed to be a past time. To relieve stress. Undue stress will affect your health. So don’t get so worked up about being unable to complete a level of your favourite game.

Peace. I’m off to Vana’diel.

Popularity: 9% [?]

The Life of 0wnage!

Published
by
Marill
on 16/5/2004
in Gaming
. 5 Comments

Who says gamers have no life? (Note: KIRBYSIM doesn’t count!) While the non-gamers go about their lives busily doing their non-gamer stuff, we gamers are having ourselves a ball of a time within the imaginative worlds of our games. Eating mushrooms, saving a princess in distress, doing kung-fu moves in bullet-time, using superhero powers to play scissors-paper-rock online, saving the universe from Evil - it’s all in a day’s life of us gamers.

But of course, as the little fish from The Wind Waker puts it so well:

I can't go fighting evil on an empty stomach, you know!

We definitely get our daily nourishment before engaging into our games. On the other hand, forgetting to bathe for 60 hours straight is another story altogether.

One of my favourite activities online has been to “0wn” the other team in an Onslaught game of Unreal Tournament 2004. A day’s life of 0wnage usually starts out like this:

ttttokyo

Connecting online to the “ttttokyo” server which I frequent a lot. It’s one of the fastest connection from my current location and there are really good players in there that provide a good challenge. Unfortunately, if they pick to be in my opposing team, they will be “0wned” by me pretty soon. :P

Onslaught is a team-based game. Both teams start off at their bases with a Power Core. The goal of the game is to destroy your opposing team’s Power Core with a wide variety of weapons and vehicles. Scattered across the map are several Link Nodes. You have to gain control of the Link Nodes that connect to your opposing team’s Power Core before you are able to damage the Power Core. Needless to say, many battles will be fought at the Link Nodes to gain control over them.

Taking the node, while team mates guard over.

Here’s how to gain control over a Link Node. I happen to be fortunate enough to have a good team with me and so you see them hanging around me and watching over my back to make sure the enemy doesn’t attack while I am taking over this Link Node here with my Link Gun.

STUNTZ!!!

And what’s life without pulling some crazy vehicle stunts? Heh heh…

Attacking the opposing team's core

Once all the connecting Link Nodes are overtaken, the opposing team’s Power Core becomes vulnerable. Attack it immediately!

Mark of great teamwork

Ahhh…. the sweet taste of victory! When you have a good team with you, it makes the victory even better. Everyone in the team knows what to do at the right time, attacking the Power Core when it becomes vulnerable, and not being somewhere else trying to camp and score lame kills.

probably the only time that premature ejaculation is a good thing

Sometimes, we’re able to “0wn” the opposing team’s Power Core so fast that someone screams out “Premature Ejaculation!” I’ve magnified the text from the corner, but it’s still difficult to see. Sorry about that. I bet this is the only context where “premature ejaculation” is considered a good thing, heh heh. :)

But of course, seeing how I am such a l33t player in UT2k4, I still “0wn” the other team pretty well on my own as the following screens will show you. It’s no coincidence that my player name is called “0wn3r” isn’t it?

Owning Solo!

Owning Solo!

Owning Solo!

So if you’re itching for an Onslaught match in Unreal Tournament 2004, drop me a line and get ready to be 0wned in the “ttttokyo” server!

Popularity: 9% [?]

Life’s Like That… Even If You Don’t Have One.

Published
by
KIRBYSIM
on 14/5/2004
in Gaming
. 0 Comments

The saying “the rainbow comes only after the rain” is often true in life. You’ve heard your parents lament about it. You’ve seen the TV serials (local productions, anyway) dramatise the concept. You can smell it right off Jacky Chan’s conditioned body. You can feel it whenever a new project is entrusted unto you, and you can taste it if you follow through.

Then again, half of you reading this out there are hardcore gamers… no, wait, not just hardcore gamers - you are the cream of the elitist crop. You know that it’s true when you’ve spent days and months to unlock the extra hard modes in Sonic Heroes and Ratchet and Clank: Going Commando; when you have more than 1000 kills in Rainbow Six 3 online; 120 shines in Mario Sunshine; 255 every single stat in any Final Fantasy game; or when you dreamt about a uniquely unbeatable strategy for Warcraft III, and wake up from it just to apply the tactic.

The point I am driving here is that, as the convention follows, elite hardcore gamers have NO LIFE whatsoever. Now, before you refute and say ‘OMG! KIRBYSIM 5uXX0r5!’ while loading up your M16A2s to lock onto my puny head the next time I log onto Rainbow Six 3 on Xbox Live, hear me say ‘I’m one of you too.’ That’s right. In fact, this whole blog entry here is all about the egoistical ME. Those of you who hold the notion that KIRBYSIM, being the good-natured and kind-hearted gentleman he is, would one day dedicate a whole blog entry to your-insidious-selves can go DREAM. HAR HAR HAR. Not happy? Then get your hands dirty, and splat them in my face.

But I digress. Now that I’ve established that I’m a no-life, let me continue to report on my observation that the concept of having to roam the seven seas in order to finally locate that one piece of valuable treasure is true even for me. In other words, the precious fruits of gaming entertainment only come after much slogging. All you MMORPG players (yes, all 2 589 032 of you) should know. But, like I said, this entry is not about you, but ME. ALL HAIL THE ALMIGHTY! MUAHAHAHAHAHAA.. *chokes* cough! Cough! COUGH!

Ahem.

If you’ve read my previous blog entry here, you’ll know that I recently tried to indulge in a little Rainbow Six 3 online ass-shooting. You’d also know that I have been unsuccessful, and am quite sore that I had to sit and wait for 3 and a half hours before being able to declare that I’m multiplayer-ready. The three full bowls of garden pasta I made (hmm.. my nose just grew longer..) did help to sooth that sore, but it was not good enough to compensate me for what was to come:

I spent 2 whole days slogging in Rainbow Six 3 in an attempt to understand why the game was so highly rated by major game review publications everywhere. “This game SUCKS,” ricochet umpteen times in my head, because I never could appreciate the beauty of getting killed before I can even shoot, much less kill someone.

Or at least, it appeared so initially.

Eventually I learnt to proceed with extreme caution. I learnt to abuse leaning. I learnt to scope. I learnt to work with my squad. I accepted the game as what it was - parallel yet different from my past FPS experiences: Counter-Strike, Return to Castle Wolfenstein, Halo, XIII.

And I had fun. Which explains why I had dedicated all my free time to Rainbow Six 3 for the past few days.

That in turn triggered an active cell, and eventually this whole blog entry, embedded somewhere in my visual pattern-recognising head: why did I think that this game sucks in the first place?

I sat down like a Zen monk, and thought for a bit.

“Come to think of it,” I continued, “I love Halo and Return to Castle Wolfenstein as well. But it wasn’t love at first sight. I faintly remember coming to a consensus with my casual-gaming buddies that Halo was over-rated. I also remember how I put Return to Castle Wolfenstein back into its Xbox casing 10 minutes after I first played it, because it gave me some serious motion sickness.”

As it turns out, I’d love nothing more than to take on polytechnic-mate-to-be and champion of the Halo World Cyber Games 2003 Singapore qualifiers Brendam Koh in a Halo match right now. The fact that he has thrashed me 25 to 5 many a times does not prevent me from dreaming of the day I’ll beat him consistently in a number of consecutive matches.

But that’s another story for another day.

To conclude, just like how you’d have to go to a JC, then a programming course at a university, and eventually become a lecturer at NUS before you can get selected by the EDB for an internship over at Sega Japan (if only so that you can own people in the ttttokyo Unreal Tournament 2004 server), gamers everywhere have to spend a ton of time reading the instruction manual, learning the controls and game physics, getting their butts kicked, and gathering tips from a plethora of game guides before they can get down to the motherload. That’s how videogames are.

… …

And then there are Nintendo games. :)

**************************************

Did’ja know.. that my Xbox Live GamerTag is ‘KIRBYSIM’? Add me if you’re looking to be stepped on by a Rainbow Six operative, shrouded by a pink evil aura, after getting fragged with a frag grenade.

Popularity: 10% [?]

All I Want to Do is Shoot Some Local Ass!

Published
by
KIRBYSIM
on 9/5/2004
in Gaming
. 3 Comments

It’s hard to game with other people these days, even if everyone involved has got the moola to spend.

As any local gamer who doesn’t live under a rock would know, Xbox Live has just been launched in Singapore, and inevitably that means that I’ve got a craving to frag some local ass.

So I got my starter kit soon after the launch, borrowed a couple of games from a friend, and started passing some hot lead around doggy(fight)-style in Crimson Skies (CS). At first, it was good. Thanks to a couple of local forums, I have been able to find a number of CS players whom I’ve had great games with, while it lasted.

That is to say, it didn’t last. A short stint, if you would. The chapter ended merely several days after its introduction paragraph - I found that the number of Crimson Skies players in my Friends’ list were gradually dropping, to the extent that it wasn’t interesting anymore. I reckon it was either because the more hardcore Crimson Skies players had other commitments to attend to, or they’ve got other games to play. With my blood boiling, and adrenaline still pumping, I needed another outlet to let off steam. After doing some homework, the realisation that Rainbow Six 3 is the solution to my sorrows set in… or so I thought.

So here I am, back home after grabbing a copy of Rainbow Six 3, supposedly one of the more popular multiplayer FPS on the Xbox. Without hesitation, I jumped the multiplayer gun as soon as the wrapper could be torn open. There were a couple of RS3 players online in my Friends’ list, and I seeked to join them… which I did… after 10 minutes of waiting for the game to patch itself. T___T ‘What a bitch to patch!’ I thought to myself. Boy, if only I had knew what was in store for me.

‘Fair enough,’ I thought, and proceeded to make myself a cup of tea (I don’t drink coffee) and some garden pasta during my wait. Eventually, it was time to get on with the show, and I joined a game with the local jockeys. One match was all I played - one particularly unexciting match for this gung-ho Rambo was shot down before he could even get his groove on - before the jokers decided to change the map.

It took the big black box 2 whole minutes to load the new playing map before it realised that it did not have the map downloaded yet. Bloody hell!

Of course, I could join an Ang Moh’s (that’s ‘foreigner’ in some Chinese dialect, for those of you international readers out there) game that did not require the additional content, but really, why would I want my ass handed to me on a golden platter by some f**k-spewing blondie who has had 6 months worth of experience in handing asses out online?

That brings me to the reason why I’m writing this blog entry in the first place. I really should be out there attempting to score some local asses (pun UNintended). Instead, I’m stuck writing this piece of ranting with absolutely colourful language while waiting for Rainbow Six 3 to download 1634 blocks of multiplayer mission data. I have no idea how many megabytes that translates to, but apparently it’s not MP3-small - the bugger’s taking an extremely long time. To top it all off, in order to make sure I won’t be dropped out of a game simply because any extra downloadable content was not found, I have to download SEVEN such freaking missions. Seven times 30 minutes = I have a lot of time to proofread this blog entry.

Hopefully by then the local players would still be online. If not, then all the wait was for naught.

***************************************

Did’ja know.. that the word ‘ass’ was used 4 times throughout the whole 637-worded article written above?

Popularity: 10% [?]

Old Skool 2D Gaming Goodness

Published
by
Marill
on 8/5/2004
in Gaming
. 3 Comments

Recently, I went about re-discovering the fun of old skool 2D games. This was triggered by my dabbling into some programming of the GameBoy Advance machine. As I was coding up a library to handle 2D sprites and a sprite animation system, I found respect for the game developers who make games on 2D gaming platforms.

My goodness, those machines were so limited in their hardware capabilities and yet, the game developers were able to work with the limitations in order to create wonderful worlds that so many players have enjoyed.

For example, the Nintendo Famicom machine was only able to support 16 colors to display on screen, out of which, only 12 colors were effectively usable. And the game developers had to work with only 12 colors in order to make their game world come alive on screen!

But did that prevent them from making great games for the Famicom? Nope. We had the great Super Mario Bros, Final Fantasy I, II & III, Legend of Zelda, Dragon Quest, Pacman, and countless of others that kept us playing and make us believe we’re living in the world that is in our TV screens.

So anyway, I went out on an inspiration hunt for old games. It resulted in me acquiring a brand new dirt cheap WonderSwan Crystal bundled with Final Fantasy IV and Front Mission, and the recent release of Mother 1+2 for the GBA. So here’s the lineup, I took some pics just to show you I really got the stuff:

The WonderSwan Crystal
MOTHER 1+2
Final Fantasy 4
Front Mission

Both FF4 and Front Mission were great! Man, this is what GAMES are about!

Anyway, what really blew me away was this really old and charming game “Mother”. “Mother” is a direct port from the same game released for the Nintendo Famicom in 1989. And boy, it was a blast to play! It’s a RPG game, but not your usual fantasy setting. It’s set somewhere in modern times with psychedelic long-haired hippies fighting you as enemies, a crow holding a cigarette, and a fat version of John Lennon appearing somewhere along the way.

The game’s so fun that I’ll tell you a story of my strange little visit to the zoo. Okaayyy…. I hear you, yeah, not another boring story again? How about I throw in some “12-color” pics so it won’t put you to sleep in about 5 seconds?

TITLE SCREEN

So we start out by popping the cartridge in the GBA and after the title screen, here we go!

Mmmm... hamburger!

That’s me in the middle of the screen, wearing that red cap, and you see, I just had a nice hamburger lunch in that building to the left and heading my way towards the zoo, yippie!

Just chillin

Hangin’ with the locals and saying hi to old granny on the top. If you notice, Elvis lives here too, he’s at the bottom corner. Okay, time to go!

Nature calls!

So, following the road out of town, I stop by the little river to do a ‘lil business. And youch!, a snake attack!

Snnnaaaaake!!

Followed by a dog and that long-haired hippie!

Not so tough
You wanna get high?

After shoving some grass up the hippie’s nose, I finally come to the gates of the zoo.

Finally, the zoo.

Aww.. cute!

See the poor captive rabbits. One of them was so excited by my presence it went into a blur frenzy.

Excited monkeys

The monkeys were equally excited and one of them started to blur as well.

Broke

Some animals got so excited that they broke out of their cages.

Kawaii!

The pandas, however, were calm.

What?

Nothing ever touches the flamingoes, ever!

Cute!

The penguins, ditto.

What is this?

Now, things started to get more interesting with this Singing Monkey. Yup, you read it right, it’s the only one here in this zoo and it sings! Hmm….. I wonder what song it sings…..

Whoa!

Whoa! Now things are really getting psychedelic over here! What the hell is happening!!!?!?!

Melody get!!

Awww.. ain’t that sweet? The monkey sang a song!

Itoi, wihout the cigarette

And to end it all, the smoking crow attacked. You don’t see cigarette coz Nintendo saw it fit to remove the cigarette from the crow for this GBA release of the game.

So well, that’s my story of a strange little visit to the zoo.

Popularity: 13% [?]

It’s A Small World

Published
by
CrashWire
on 3/5/2004
in Gaming
. 0 Comments

I went to the Xbox Live Launch last Friday not to check out Xbox Live, but to meet with friends. Free cotton candy and beer was a bonus, definitely.

Anyway, kudos to Microsoft for trying to make gaming appeal to the general public. DJs for emcees, entertainment for the “in” crowd and entrance queues to rival that of clubs during peak periods. Not to forget another two queues, one to purchase the Xbox Live kit and another to redeem the free memory card that comes with it. Ah well, this is Singapore anyway, land of the queues. There was also a rather impressive show of pyrotechnics, which made the entire place seem on fire for a bit.

But that’s not what the main focus of this post is. It’s rather strange, yet somewhat common to meet fellow Singaporeans in an online game. What’s even startling is how you can play with a fellow Singaporean for ages and only know that he also hails from Singapore when you examine him and see a Singapore linkshell (Final Fantasy XI term for IRC chatroom) or when the entire party reveals their places of origin. Of course, when us pioneers pretty much arranged for most Singaporeans to congregate on either the Ragnarok or Seraph server, I guess it would be rather common. If either Snag or Squishy from Seraph are reading this, Kurashiire said hi.

But when you play a game with a rather small international community such as Chron X, you tend to not expect to meet Singaporeans much if at all. After all, such games have very limited appeal. But in my 6 years of playing (wow, that’s an awfully long time, isn’t it?), I’ve met um… two Singaporeans. Yeah, two. I wonder if those people will read this very post.

Keep a look out for Singaporeans in any online game you play. Organize communities and maybe even meet up once in a while in real life. Who knows what the outcome of such an outing would be?

Popularity: 9% [?]